The Halloween Lizard Cake Fiasco
by G12G4
Summary: A one-shot about Hufflepuff Prefect Erin Green's baking experiment gone wrong.


Erin Green sat with her thin, freckled face perched upon her twiglike arms, leaning on the table and staring at the pale honey colored wall of the common room with an intensity that suggested she believed if she stared at it long enough, it would reveal to her the answers she sought.

"I've got it!" she cried, her head snapping up with eyes wide.

Her fellow fifth year prefect, Donald MacMillan, a no-nonsense boy of average build and open features, raised his eyes from the book he was reading. "What is it you've got?"

"Lizards!" Erin said, her hands spread out in front of her as if gifting the revelation to him.

"Lizards?" Donald raised his brow.

"Yes, for the Halloween Party! Cake Lizards! They'd be like chocolate frogs, except, you know, cake." Her eyes sparkled as she spoke.

"This won't be like the Cream Puff Venus Flytrap, will it? Because I don't think Professor Sprout has much more space in the Mortal Danger section of the greenhouses for your recipes."

"Of course not! How could you even suggest that? This will be an animal, not a plant."

Donald turned back to his book. "So, if anything, it will belong to Hagrid."

"I'll show you. It will work and it'll be the best thing at the Halloween party." Erin stalked off to her dorm to make a list of the items she would need to buy at Hogsmeade that weekend.

Erin was a muggleborn student who had always had a love for cooking and creating new recipes with... mixed results, as her father's workplace would be quick to say given his number of food related absences. Still, her parents had always supported her dream, even if it meant the occasional day spent at home in recovery, figuring she might become the owner of her own bakery or restaurant someday. They had not counted on her receiving a letter to Hogwarts. The idea that she could use magic to enhance her food had resulted in a number of... rather unusual recipes. She felt the flying tarts had been rather good, even if a few had escaped and were now nesting among the trees in the Forbidden Forest, teaching their tartlings how to fly.

She returned from Hogsmeade with her arms full of ingredients, spreading them out all across the table. Flour puffed out from the bag as she dropped it. She pulled back her fluffy strawberry blond hair into a ponytail and took out her wand. She had asked Professor Flitwick how to perform a charm that would allow the lizards to crawl around until they were caught, at which point they would return to being cake. It was more advanced than she had ever tried before, but she was certain she could do it.

"I'll make it a Vanilla cake... with lavender colored spiced rum vanilla bean frosting... that will make their little green mint chip eyes pop... and maybe a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar for texture... Ooo! And eggnog pastry cream filling! These are going to be so tasty!" She hugged herself in anticipation. At the flick of her wand the little lizard cakes took shape.

By the end of the evening Erin was covered in flour and cake batter. She was tired but had five dozen cake lizards all ready to go for the party. She placed a metal cover over the three plates where the cakes lay as if sleeping with a sign reading 'Do Not Touch' . "Now you rest up for tomorrow," she said, rubbing her eyes, wearily, as she headed into her dorm.

The next morning she woke up early and went to check on her lizards. As she walked into the Common Room a terrible sight met her eyes. She stared, open mouthed, at the overturned domes. Perched on a chair, trying to coax a cake lizard from the ceiling, was Tip Walker, a third year who made up for his lack of height and grace with unfathomable confidence and a knack for causing trouble. It stuck its licorice tongue out at Tip before scurrying away.

She had only had some dealings with Tip before, typically the Australian was Donald's problem, but once, last year, he had asked her how to make a cream pie. She had not thought anything of it at the time. His resulting Canary Cream Pie had turned most of Hufflepuff into giant canaries for over a week until Madam Pomfrey had managed to reverse the spell.

"Tip Walker!" she shouted.

"Oh good, you're up! Help me catch these things."

"How could you, Tip? Those were for the party!" She looked as though she might cry.

"I didn't know they were enchanted to move." He leapt up, grabbing the lizard by the tail before falling to the ground where the lizard wriggled out of his hands. "Crikey! These things are fast!"

"They're supposed to stop moving when you touch them," Erin cried.

"Well, tell them that!" Tip said pouncing on one that easily slipped from his grasp.

" _Petificus Totalus_!" Erin hit the lizard with the spell. It looked at her for a minute and then went about it's way. It was then she noticed the swarm of cake lizards on the five tiered Halloween cake. "Oh no! They're going to eat the cake!"

"Can they eat the cake?" Tip tilted his head as he regarded the lavender creatures. "Wouldn't that be cannibalism?"

"Just help me catch them!" she cried.

After an hour and an emergency call for help from Professor Sprout, Hagrid addressed the Hufflepuff students, his coat covered in five dozen crawling cake lizards.

"Don' worry, ah'll give 'em a good home," he said, tickling one of the lizards under the chin with his massive finger.

Donald cast a glance at Erin.

"Don't you even say a word," she warned.

"I was just going to say I think the lizard prints in the icing add a nice touch to the cake is all, very creepy. Probably would have been too much cake anyway, between the lizards and the Halloween cake."

"You're right," she said, cradling her head in her hands before once more it shot up, her eyes wide. "Next year I'll make chocolate ball spiders!"


End file.
